Emergent Legal founder Christopher Wimmer was quoted by Bloomberg's Criminal Law Reporter yesterday in the journal's article on the Supreme Court's decision in Plumhoff v. Rickard. A copy of the article is available here. Emergent filed an amici brief in the case on behalf of the National Police Accountability Project and Human Rights Defense Center, available here, and authored a commentary for JURIST about it, available here.

In Plumhoff, the Court voted 9-0 to grant immunity to police officers who shot 15 times at two motorists who had committed only a vehicular misdemeanor, and who two lower courts had determined did not pose a threat to the public as they fled. The Supreme Court, relying on video taken by police car dashboard cameras, determined that there was no question whether the officers acted reasonably -- turning a factual issue that would normally be decided by a jury into a question of law for the nine justices.

We are disappointed by the Court's decision, and believe it represents a threat to the Seventh Amendment civil jury trial right. But we are grateful for the opportunity to represent NPAP and HRDC in this matter, and look forward to our next brief in the Supreme Court.